Write a short note on the pastoral community of Dhangars of Maharashtra.

Their population in the early twentieth century was 4,67,000. They were mostly
shepherds. Some were blanket weavers or buffalo herders. They stayed in the central plateau of Maharashtra during the monsoon. The area was a semi-arid region with low rainfall and poor soil which was covered with thorny scrubs. Only bajra could be sown here but in the monsoon the area became a vast grazing ground for the Dhangar flocks. By October they shifted to Konkan because that was a flourishing agricultural tract high rainfall and rich soil. The Konkan peasants gave them supplies of rice. Dhangar flocks manured the fields and fed on the
stubble. With the onset of the monsoon, the Dhangars left the Konkan and the coastal areas with their flocks and returned to their settlements on the dry plateau because the sheep could not tolerate the wet monsoon conditions.